Learning
by Inu Eve
Summary: We know that the M-series lost their memories, but what more than a name do you lose when you no longer remember who you are? A tribute to the 'failed experiments,' and also a collection of drabbles. M for some chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**What do you lose when you lose yourself?**

**Noblesse is not mine, I simply exert my will upon the characters.**

**Warning: Death/ Descriptions of other M series experiments taken from Chapter 78 of Noblesse**

**It seems like the right thing to give some of M-21's comrades a personality, even if I don't know how well I've done with that here. This is just something that was eating away at me and I eventually decided to share.**

When the experiments were over, the remaining eight members of the M series were split up into pairs to work as general agents. That day, once the scientist had left the room, we looked around at each other and smiled.

The outside world was strange yet familiar, a far cry from the tanks we had been in before and the sterile, white rooms where more experiments were conducted.

After a month of being familiarized with procedures, we began to be sent out on missions. M-85 and M-10 were the first to go and were to sent to a big city in America, New York, to guard some item. When they came back, M-85 happily babbled about the amazing food he had gotten to try—his partner said all food was amazing to M-85 with that huge stomach as proof—and we were all intrigued by his descriptions of burgers, French fries, and pizza as well as the difficulties of making yourself understood when you didn't know the language.

After some coaxing, M-10 smirked as he spoke of bars and pool tables and men in black leather jackets who admired his tattoos.

The group learned about Japan, sushi, and shrines from M-57 and M-60 after their stint acting as bodyguards for a low-level Union scientist. N-57 kept sighing about the beauties he had seen, and M-60 expounded on the fighters they had seen. In contrast, M-24 thought the shrines sounded peaceful, and M-85 kept asking about sushi.

Next, it was I and M-24's turn to recount their adventure in acting as couriers for some special—though not really that special—paper that took them into China and gave them a little time afterwards to wander around the malls. M-24 made sure to take note of the food for M-85, and I watched the people with a mixture of awe and fear at the sheer number.

Finally, M-63 and M-92 came back from their time blending in to a small military base as informants for the Union. M-63 spoke of soldiers who banded together as comrades and treated each other like family, M-92 bounced about, pretending to be very manly and macho by standing with his head held high and snapping to attention.

Missions came and went and with each one the 'failed experiments' learned.

M-85 learned that he loved savory foods and hated bitter ones, and M-10 learned to take pride in his tattoos even if he didn't know why he had them.

M-57 learned that he loved women and could be the king of a club with ease if he wanted, whereas M-60 learned that he really hated having anyone around him except his comrades—a troublesome mix with how his partner was.

M-24 learned that his size and appearance scared everyone but young children, and so he learned that children were precious, precious people. I learned that I liked wearing real clothing rather than the sweats from before.

M-63 learned that he liked to ruffle M-92's hair and speak with his actions. M-92 learned that he disliked being treated like a child just because he looked like the youngest of us.

As time continued on, we foolishly thought the worst was behind us. After exactly one year of conducting minor missions, M-63 and M-92 were held back to be used in a new experiment.

M-63 died, and M-92 stopped bouncing.

For a while, M-92 was placed with M-57 and M-60, then with M-85 when M-10's body suffered late complications from experiments they thought were over.

Still, none of us gave up. When M-92 began to lose his spark, M-24 always did his best to comfort him, and as I and then M-60 no longer needed medication to survive, we began to hope. Then more experiments and our numbers dwindled.

A year after we became general agents, everyone but M-24 and I were dead with only M-57 dying during the course of a mission.


	2. Chapter 2

**Raizel/M-21**

**If Raizel was a more typical vampire—aka, drinking blood. Somewhat based off of Anne Rice's books XP**

**Warnings: Mild slash**

M-21 couldn't look away from the sight of his partner's fist being stopped by a single, delicate-looking hand. '_Wha-what?!_'

And then the blond was suddenly back and his arms exploded in pain such that he cried out before focusing entirely on his breathing. In, out, in and out… When he came out of his daze, the blond was moving in for the kill only to stop at a single word from the brunette.

The following conversation made little sense to M-21. '_Master? The-the brunette is the boss? But he was with the kids, why would the younger one be called master?_' M-21 eventually closed his eyes in defeat, '_I have to be hallucinating from the pain—none of this makes sense_.'

Grey eyes open again as fingers clasp his chin, and despite how useless it is, he bares his teeth angrily at the blond. Ignoring the attempt at intimidation, the blond forces his head up then to the sides, and M-21 finally finds the clarity to stagger back and away from those pale fingers.

"What are you doing?" The younger experiment growls out before flicking his eyes to the right, looking for M-24 to make sure he was alright.

The giant is still on his knees, but he seems otherwise unharmed. M-21 feels a bit of relief at that, and he carefully sidles over to his comrade while keeping their enemies in sight—arms still hanging uselessly at his sides.

M-24 doesn't seem to approve. "Get out of here!" The giant growls, "We can't win against them—run while you have the chance!"

M-21 ignores him—he has gotten quite good at that during their time together. Instead, he focuses on their enemies. The blond is frowning at the brunette, who is—who is coming closer! Crouching, M-21 prepared to defend his still helpless comrade as best he could without using his arms, and he's just about to lash out with a kick when, before he can lift his leg, the brunette says a single word.

"Stop."

Instantly, M-21's breathing slows, his body freezes, and he desperately fights against the effects of the command even as the brunette comes to stand right in front of him. M-24 is cussing in the background, trying to intimidate the brunette away with words alone before he, too, is silenced with a single word.

M-21 can't even flinch when the brunette gently pushes the grey's head to the side, exposing his neck in a way that makes M-21 feel distinctly vulnerable. He is completely clueless when the elegant brunette moves to press cool lips to M-21's exposed neck, and the grey feels moisture for a moment before the world seems to explode around him.

In some distant corner of his mind, he realizes that _this_ must be what the Union files meant when they spoke of a vampire's bite being perhaps the only true aphrodisiac. All the experiment can feel is an intense pleasure unlike anything he can remember, and there's a presence inside him that is like M-24's practice sessions in only the barest of ways.

It comes as a surprise that his eyes are closed, and when they open, he is surrounded by shadows with the vampire's gleaming, white-uniformed presence in front of him. Even in his mind, he gasps and shudders from the sheer pleasure coursing through his veins—heat pools in his groin, and he can barely think—but his time practicing with M-24 and his own stubborn, hot-headed nature comes through.

"Get—" He shudders as he momentarily loses the will to speak, but then he tries to force the pleasure away and continues, "Get out of my mind."

Those red eyes continue to bore into him, and he closes his eyes again so he can't look at them—can't fall into their gaze and become a gibbering, pleading mess—and then the man speaks. He feels like he's cumming; the simple words wash over him, in him, caressing every inch of his body and turning him into a shuddering, hormonal mess.

"Who are you?" The man waits a few moments for the experiment to answer, but M-21 can't—it's too much—and gradually he stops shuddering as the pleasure recedes until it's just a gentle heat in the background.

"Who are you?" He asks again, and this time M-21 can think and has enough presence of mind to glare at the other wordlessly.

But his reticence is a failure. The question prompts memories of his first time being aware enough to realize what the tattoo on his wrist was, tanks holding his comrades—

_**Comrades?**_

'Yes, comrades, the other experiments like him—many who died before he could meet them, and a few he did meet yet still... It was all they knew, all they could remember—they had no names, nothing to point to having actually lived before the tubes except for skills and some knowledge. Like how M-21 knew so many languages, and M-24 could draw out a blue-print for a building with incredible precision and detail.'

Everything he remembers is rushing by and it is only when his thoughts come near the present, to M-24 being forced onto his knees with a single word when M-21 remembers his visitor. His eyes snap open again, and the brunette is close enough to bite if he could move to do so.

Instead, his visitor presses their mouths together in a chaste kiss that nonetheless tears M-21's composure to shreds as he cries silent tears for the comrades he has lost as though the wounds were still fresh, raw—not that he had allowed himself to cry when they were.

He only vaguely remembers truly waking up, out on the street with the vampire gently steadying him as his legs wobble and he sinks to the pavement. M-24 later tells him, uncomfortably, that when he came out of it he had tears running down his face—all M-21 can remember before falling into unconsciousness is hearing the giant's voice desperately asking what happened before turning on the others with curses and epithets.

**Might do some more on this, but for now it's just a one-shot that morphed into a drabble. :-) Let me know if you have any suggestions for a continuation.**


	3. Chapter 3

**In tribute to the newest chapter of Noblesse at the moment: Chapter 245**

**Warnings: Spoilers for Chapter 245, proceed at your own risk**

M-24 hadn't really wanted to die, but he saw no choice. The children needed him, and he couldn't just let them be killed—he can't watch when he knows there's help on the way. He's killed children, teenagers before, and he's never liked it, but now he's seen hope for the future in the form of two powerful individuals.

There will be no future for either of them if these children die, and that is the clincher. So, he makes the decision to risk his own life—the risk being so great that he _knows_ he's more likely to die than live—in order to secure the future for a group of innocent children and his partner. His last surviving comrade.

If anything is worth his life, it is this, he thinks as he faces Jake, stalling for time. He has no name, no history, no proof to the world that he existed except for M-21 and a group of children he doesn't know, but that will have to be enough.

When help finally arrives, he can feel the build-up of energy from Jake, despite how weak he has become. He can later feel an opposing power that wipes the monster out, and tears slide down his face in silent relief—he chose the right side.

With the knowledge that he is about to die, M-21's voice calling out to him is both blessing and torture. Putting aside his own fear, his own worry, he speaks to his partner, his family, and tells him what to do—how to use his sacrifice.

Tries to sooth him even as the giant continues to weaken, his body slowly numbing but still in pain.

He regrets that he can't be with his comrade, but as he fades he thinks of the lives he has saved and is proud of his legacy.

When he awakens in a lab, connected to machines that beep—screaming to his aching head—he wonders if he is in hell. It would be fitting that his punishment for the lives he snuffed under the Union's employment would be an eternity as an experiment, but he doesn't waste long feeling sorry for himself.

Soon, he discovers the truth—he is alive. Alive in the world he thought he had left behind… alive in a world where his comrade may still be alive.

He watches. He plans. He waits.

When the right moment comes, he finds his strength greater than his oppressors, and nothing can ruin that moment of jumping into freedom—not even the sting of bullets.

He is alive, free, and ready to find the last of his comrades. M-24 is back.

**Read the latest chapter and just had to write an ode to M-24, so to speak. So excited to see what the future will bring, and I hope we'll get to see more of the giant in the future.**


End file.
